Dieser AAR wurde geschrieben von Zipuli und im Original im steelbeasts.com forum veröffentlicht.
My company composition for this mission was:[INDENT=2]- CO vehicle, CV9030 (myself)
- A platoon, 4x CV9030 (induction, dr.thodt, TwilightMD)
- B platoon, 4x CV9030 (ronin, PincerDK)
- C platoon, 4x CV9030 (Hedgehog, Crusty, Tjay, OldRaven)
- D platoon, 4x Leopard 2A4 (Eisenschwein, Mirzayev (dropped), Ricopico, Panzer_leader)
[/INDENT]
The orders I received was to attack as the left company in the Battlegroup attack formation, clear area referred as "Valkeala north", as small residential
area north of Valkeala centrum, clear route R and take OBJ15 east side. Swedish company would attack on my left, taking the centrum, I would need to
take the bigger residential area and the sports center area along with the most of the high hill of "Harjunmäki" in OBJ15.
Recon would move out ASAP and the main body would move out 15 minutes behind.
I made a following plan and gave orders to platoon leaders:
A platoon would be sent in first, as a scout element. They would see if our attack route was clear of enemies and after that they would swing around
Valkeala north from the east to secure our left flank. They would continue south to cut highway 15 once our main attack to Valkeala
town would begin.
Main body would move out in march order D, CO, C, B, Packhorse 1 (Kingtiger's CSS element)
D and C would attack Valkeala north, west side as a platoon team
B would attack Valkeala north, east side and then be used as a reserve, with orders to prepare to support the other companies if needed.
Our first objective was marked on the map as RED1. This chokepoint I thought needed to be taken to succesfully continue the attack to sports center.
There we would consolidate, reorganize and reload before continuing the move. Attacking through urban terrain is very difficult
and loosing the strings would mean casualties!
Here is a satellite image of the battle area, with areas of interest numbered and these numbers will be reference in the following AAR of the action itself.
Preparations:
Once the mission started, A platoon was on the move and the rest of the company deployed to move out and received the Packhorse element for support.
We moved south-east to Line Of Departure.
Here is an image taken by the CO in the deployment zone. D platoon is preparing to take point with vehicles of C platoon forming up behind my vehicle...
A platoon continued their recce all the way to AREA 1 (in the satellite image). Moving closer to the small field, I received information that they had spotted enemy
ATGM launcher and a tank in this area.
The platoon succesfully pulled back to safety before the enemy managed to react.
I requested artillery strike on the ATGM team's location from GOBLIN (Falli), our BG forward observer.
A platoon spots the enemy...
I also ordered D platoon to take out the tank before we would move out to begin the attack on Valkeala north.
I ordered the rest of the company to hold until the threat was taken care of.
Eisenschwein's platoon moved out and not long after the booming of the 120mm cannon was heard and the enemy tank was reported being killed!
D platoon tanks hunt the T-72 spotted being in position behind the houses.
Short range kill by Ricopico. There were no long range kills during this mission for our company!
C platoon following me, stopping to wait for the tank being taken care of.
After the tank was killed, I started deploying the company for the attack. I ordered A to continue south east around the residential area.
D and C platoons started moving up to the north side of the field
and B was to take their left side. Unfortunately while deploying one Leopard and one CV were immobilized in the rough terrain and had to be left out of the attack.
Packhorse moved in to assist,
but the said vehicles did not manage to take part in the combat. Though they were succesfully repaired.
From my right I heard Swedish company being in contact with similar force than I had taken care of and they also had casualties in a minefield.
My A platoon also reported enemy minefield near the destroyed T-72, but as it was not in the way of the actual attack,
they just marked the area on my map and went around.
Taking Valkeala north:
This is the area of Valkeala north viewed from our direction, area 2 in the satellite image. A small residential area from where a main road leads to the town center.
While the company main body was deploying, A platoon reported another minefield east of us, in the area where we would need to set up an outpost after the
objective was taken.
They also ran into 2 BMD-2 IFVs and some troops and quickly took care of them. Some 30mm shots were received from the BMDs but the CV's add-on armour
could take it with no damage.
A platoon in contact east of Valkeala north (area 4).
While deploying, more artillery was fired on Valkeala north to soften up any possible resistance.
The attack was soon ready to begin. Platoons had following tasks:[INDENT]C platoon would move in first through the field into Valkeala north, dismount and start clearing the houses with infantry.
C platoon CVs would provide support behind D platoon's tanks.
D platoon would move behind the infantry, supporting with direct fire. Each tank was to be followed by a CV.
This "platoon team" attack was to continue all the way to OBJ R1 (clearing areas 2 and 5 in the satellite image).
B platoon was to attack on the left side, clearing the smaller residential area (area 3 in the satellite image). After clearing it, the platoon would be reserve.
[/INDENT]
This is the view from the company border. Swedish company is in the foreground, and they ran into enemy abatis. Finnish vehicles can be seen in the background, right after
crossing the open field.
D and C platoons deploying just before dismounting.
This is view from my command vehicle after crossing the field under cover of barrage. The Leopards took positions and supported the dismounting and then the attack began.
Attack in progress!
When C platoon dismounted and started moving up, I stayed just behind the tanks to oversee the whole operation. The infantry screen advanced, taking some fire
from enemy infantry but the vehicles supporting took care of any opposition very quickly. Textbook stuff. Now that we were attacking on foot, clearing a bunch of
houses, the swedish company attack proceeded past us a bit. They were running into more opposition than us I figured from the comms, but they managed.
Until they ran into bigger minefields.
I estimate we cleared few infantry teams from Valkeala north... It seemed like a screening force and they had managed to lay quite large minefields, though on top
of the ground. There was no time for them to dig the mines, so they were easy to spot! My C and B platoons both reported minefields up ahead and the attack
stopped. Both platoons sent infantry to search for any holes in the minefields we could exploit. C found one in front of us, probably left open for the enemies to
withdraw through, and B managed to go around the minefield from east.
Situation after taking Valkeala north, according to my BMS. You can see my attack formation has taken Valkeala north and A has started moving around the enemy minefield in the
east. They moved along the power lines, that ran from Valkeala north to east and then south all the way to Highway 15. Swedish company spearhead is some 500m in front of our
attack. Both companies have plenty of minefields spotted...
